The “it” in this case was Mitrione’s decision to turn down a bout with Strikeforce heavyweight grand-prix winner Daniel Cormier. Seems White and Co. had tried to convince Mitrione to step in on a month’s notice and fight the former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain at a Strikeforce event slated for Nov. 3 in Oklahoma City. Mitrione didn’t like that idea, probably because wrestling is his weakest area and Cormier’s strongest, so he passed. Then White went out and ripped him in the press, saying he couldn’t understand why any fighter would turn down such a big opportunity.

If he still can’t understand it, maybe he should ask welterweight DaMarques Johnson. Maybe there’s a case study that will help us make sense out of Mitrione’s attempt at self-preservation, and one that proves that sometimes it’s better to take a little bit of a beating in the headlines than rely on the UFC’s sense of gratitude over the long run.

In case you haven’t heard, the UFC released Johnson this week. When last we saw him, he was stepping up on extremely short notice to fight much-hyped Icelandic submission expert Gunnar Nelson at the UFC on FUEL TV 5 event in Nottingham, England – the same event in which White spoke to the media about Mitrione’s “insane” decision to turn down a fight with Cormier. Johnson failed to make weight for the bout with Nelson and then got submitted in the first round for his third straight defeat. So on the surface it does seem like all the usual dominoes had started to fall in Johnson’s case. Missing weight and losing three in a row are both bad recipes for holding onto employment in the UFC. Doing both is a pink slip waiting to happen.

But then, consider the circumstances surrounding that bout. Johnson was just coming off a medical suspension from his knockout loss to Mike Swick at the UFC on FOX 4 event when he got the call to face Nelson. The suspension prohibited him from doing any sparring or hard training in the gym, and it required him to get clearance from a doctor before jumping back into the fray. He’d just received a concussion while doing his best to put on an exciting performance in a brawl with Swick, so ideally he should have been sitting at home letting his brain heal.

Even with all that going on, when the UFC called and asked Johnson to take a high-risk fight on less than two weeks’ notice – and against a skilled grappler who had actually been training for this date all along – Johnson said yes. He did what the UFC wanted him to do, even if it was probably not the best idea for his career (or, honestly, his brain). Then he lost, somewhat predictably, since it turns out that Nelson is not the kind of guy you can just roll in and beat when you’re out of shape and out of practice.

Johnson probably knew that, or at least had reason to suspect it. But then, you don’t want to tell the UFC no, do you? We all know how much White likes guys who are team players and company men. The ones who pick and choose and try to avoid bad stylistic matchups on short-notice, well, they risk drawing the UFC’s ire and becoming the targets of mini-smear campaigns like the one White launched against Mitrione in Nottingham. You don’t want your boss to get up in front of a bunch of reporters and question your desire, your courage and your intelligence, do you? Wouldn’t you rather play nice and do what the UFC asks?

Johnson did, and look where it got him. The UFC put him in a situation in which it would have been something close to miraculous for him to pull off a win, and then fired him when he didn’t. Thanks for stepping up, DaMarques. Now don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Am I the only one thinking that Mitrione’s decision is starting to look a lot less insane now? Granted, he’s lost one fight rather than two, and he would have had a month to prepare rather than a week, but he’s still smart to weigh the pros and cons and come out wondering whether it’s worth probably getting beaten up and taking a loss just to stay on the UFC’s good side, which wasn’t even all that good in Johnson’s case. Cormier’s a better wrestler than Mitrione, who’s a promising fighter but still very much a work in progress.

Just because Mitrione doesn’t want to fight him now, with only a month to work on his sprawl and get himself in shape, it doesn’t mean he’s throwing in the towel on his entire career; it means he’s self-aware enough to know a bad bet when he sees one.

Johnson’s situation reminds us that, while it’s nice to do favors, it’s senseless when those favors aren’t met with at least a minimum of gratitude. If the UFC is going to cut fighters based on how they look in short-notice, bad-idea fights, it can’t be too surprised when fighters aren’t so eager to throw themselves into those situations. If it treats fighters like disposable parts, with their value dependent entirely on their recent wins and losses, it only makes sense for the fighters to act accordingly.

Who wouldn’t guard his record closely if it were the only thing standing between him and unemployment? Who would keep doing favors for someone who seems to forget all about those favors as soon as they’re done?

Now that would be really insane. To look out for yourself in a business that rarely rewards anything else, that’s just good sense.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?